VMware vCloud Hybrid Service Generally Available from UK Data Center

VMware vCloud Hybrid Service has recently become generally availability in Europe, providing customers the flexibility to stretch their IT resources across their on-premise infrastructure and an off-premise data center in Slough, UK, that meets UK and EU compliance and data sovereignty demands.

vCHS is an Infrastructure-as-a-Service cloud operated by VMware and built on VMware’s vSphere virtualization platform for cloud infrastructure. By providing a secure off-premise environment, it adds an easy route for private clouds to become hybrid clouds. VMware launched vCHS in the US in 2013, and the company plans on launching more locations across Europe in 2014.

For the users of its UK cloud, VMware provides fully-redundant server infrastructure using VMware vSphere vMotion and VM availability guarantees.

Concern over data residency and compliance are also high among UK enterprises.

In a recent poll of 200 VMware enterprise customers in the UK, VMware found that 86 percent said it was important to be able to store data in UK-based clouds to comply with residency regulations, and over half said they were legally required to meet these residency requirements. Meanwhile, VMware also found that 20 percent of those surveyed were unaware of where all of their data currently resides.

“VMware vCloud Hybrid Service provides VMware customers with the flexibility to dynamically move workloads into a VMware public cloud as business and market opportunities dictate, whilst ensuring they’re in control of compliance and security within their region,” VMware EMEA Cloud Services VP and GM Gavin Jackson said in a statement.

Customers will have term-based subscriptions based on capacity. Specific pricing information has not been released.